State reps set to testify at probation trial

BOSTON — Former House Ways and Means Chairman Charley Murphy and three current state representatives are set to take the stand today in the probation trial that is nearing its close.

Reps. Michael Moran and Kevin Honan, both Brighton Democrats, are expected to be called Wednesday, as is Rep. Garrett Bradley, a Hingham Democrat.

Prosecutors have said Murphy will testify that during the recent fiscal crisis of the recession, Speaker Robert DeLeo told him not to cut the Probation Department budget. Honan and Moran both received calls from a DeLeo aide giving them the chance to propose a candidate for a probation job, according to prosecutors.

Bradley had proposed legislation that would have restored to the head of the Trial Court the ability to transfer money into and out of the Probation Department. The Legislature had taken that power away from the court and given it to itself.

Former Probation Commissioner John O'Brien and two former deputies, Elizabeth Tavares and William Burke III, are fighting charges they rigged hiring and steered jobs toward politically connected applicants to curry favor in the Legislature.

DeLeo pulled Murphy out of his Ways and Means chairmanship in January 2011, and in December of 2011 Murphy stepped down from the post of assistant majority leader, or majority whip, as DeLeo was preparing to oust him.

After stepping down, Murphy acknowledged he had privately discussed future ambitions for the speakership and the nascent law enforcement probe into hiring within the Probation Department.

"What I did speak to was — and it's the elephant in the living room — probation. There is a probe going. Everybody is aware of that," Murphy said on WGBH-TV. He said, "The rumor is, or the accepted rumor appears to be, that something is out there and something's going to happen and we have to adapt when the time comes. That's all. But again, for doing that, and for having the audacity to do that, the speaker wasn't happy."

Murphy's clash with DeLeo is unlikely to become part of the trial, as Judge William Young has strictly ruled out of bounds nearly everything that occurred after O'Brien was suspended in 2010.

The trial left off Tuesday with former Chief Justice of Administration and Management Robert Mulligan testifying.